Braid Solves Sales Puzzle

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The indie game has a strong showing in its first week on XBLA.

By Ryan Geddes

In its first full week of sales on Xbox Live Arcade, the indie game Braid has sold about 55,000 digital copies, enough to allow developer Jonathan Blow to continue making games on his own, according to Blow's official blog.

"Sales are now slower than they were on launch day, but not too much: the sales didn't just die after the first few days, as they do with some games," Blow writes. "As a result, it looks like I will be able to make the next game, without needing to get a job that would interfere with that. (The estimated sales so far of 55,000 are not enough for this, but extrapolating into the future, the situation looks safe). Thank you, once again, for making that possible."

At $15 a download, that adds up to about $825,000 in revenue for Braid, a very respectable first week for a fairly high-concept independent game with no big-name brand recognition or developer clout. We don't often hear direct sales figures for XBLA games, so Blow's blog gives some interesting insight into the economics of digital distribution.

We don't know what Blow's cut is, but even if it's 50 percent, that's still a more than $400,000 payday that will only grow over time as Braid remains on XBLA. But will the time-bending platform/puzzler remain on top in a month full of big-name downloadable titles?

"An open question now is whether sales will drop more steeply now that Bionic Commando: Rearmed is the new game on Xbox Live Arcade," Blow writes.